hello fellow bass anglers..my question is that i have been using the ms slammer for about a couple of months now..i have worked it slow on the top..and below the surface with aconstant retrieve ,,and with a erratic retrieve.ihave tried ,fast and slow retrieves,in the morning and at night.but not so much as a sniff. it also makes ahuge thud when it hits the water and is kind of apain to use with out any results.my question is what am i doing wrong.or is the msslammer not the best choice for swimbaits .the color is light rainbow and the size is the 9 inch . very frustrated!! any help please..thanks:-(

The first one is always the hardest one. It's hard to believe you'll get bit on a 9" bait until you get bit on it. I know the feeling exactly. After reading about all these huge bass at Casitas on AC Plugs, Castaic's and Dinosaurs I bought a 7" AC and a Dinosaur. The first time I took the Dinosaur to Casitas I fished off the shore and in my mind I believed that I would just throw it out there and start catching right away. Imagine the how disillusioned I was after an hour or so! I didn't get touched. We threw the AC from my friend's boat at Casitas later on and figured it would be hookup city. Yeah right. Same deal years later at Santa Margarita Lake, I still had my 7" AC Plug and got re-motivated to throw it. And throw it I did for a darn long time before I got bit. Getting that first one took probably 2 years of half-assing it. I look back now and would KILL to be on Casitas in '95 throwing trouts or Margarita in '97 knowing what I know now.

The difference is now I have a boat, a half dozen swimbait rods, and the confidence to throw when I think I'm going to get bit. When you're just tossing it out and winding it in, you're looking for a needle in a haystack. When you start being agressive, making moves, working your bait across key spots, sneaking up on points and cover and all that stuff, that's when you get hit. For every pic of a guy with a big fish hanging on a swimbait, you can bet that guy put in a whole hell of a lot of time to get that fish.

I doubt you're striking out because you don't know how to fish, it's probably just because you haven't seen it happen yet. Some of my good friends whose arms I twisted and pulled on telling them to throw the Slammer didn't believe in it until they saw me get a fish on it in person. Once you SEE it happen, then you'll believe it. If you can 'see it' happen to yourself, that's awesome. If you go with someone else and see them do it, that works too.

Anyway, the only way you'll get a fish is to keep trying. Swimbait fishing is trendy right now and sounds all glamorous, but you're either going to be grinding them out or making specific moves to get swimbait fish these days. The days of stupid easy fish are mostly gone.

Like Swimbait said patience pays off. You need to pick your spots and times when the big ole girls are going to key in on this type of bait. When I first started throwing these monster baits I was like there is now way a bass is gonna eat this, till that time when big mama says she wants it and almost tears the rod from your hands. Believe me, when you get that first blow up on your bait, it will make those thousands of casts well worth it.

Tight Lines,
Bank Pounder

Hey Spike and anyone else for that matter here's something I wrote up in about an hour this January but never posted...Maybe it will help maybe it won't.

Great leaders have it. The great sports players have it. A great fisherman definitely has it. Well what is ‘it’? If you haven’t guessed that ‘it’ is CONFIDENCE. A great fisherman has confidence that the bait they are throwing is going to get bit on every cast otherwise they wouldn’t be throwing it. When it comes to throwing the big swimbaits for bass fisherman have a hard time getting confidence in these baits. I’ve heard everything from “It would have to be a monster to eat that!” to “Do you actually catch fish on that thing?” Well the answer is “No they don’t.” and “Yes, I have along with thousands of other people.” To me there are 2 kinds of confidence that will lead people to throw the big rubber and wood swimbaits. They are borrowed confidence and personal confidence.

Borrowed confidence is usually why you buy a swimbait in the first place. It could be from a picture at the local tackle shop that shows someone with a trophy bass from your local lake that was caught on a swimbait. Maybe you read a report online about someone catching their first ten pound bass on a swimbait and decided to buy one because you would like to be the one posting that report about your first ten pound bass. Whatever causes you to buy your first 9 inch lure usually comes down to borrowed confidence. The “If they can do it, why can’t I?” way of thinking. The problem with borrowed confidence is it can run low in a hurry. You go out your first time with your freshly bought swimbait thinking that the swimbait is all you will throw and for 5 hours you do and you get skunked big time, no follows, no taps, nothing. It can really get you down. You were pumped up to buy it and get to throw it only to be knocked off that pedestal during your first trip. Well get back on that pedestal and keep throwing, maybe not everyday all day but try to throw them an hour or two a trip, maybe just a few casts when you arrive at a spot and a few casts when you are leaving a spot, just make sure the swimbait sees the water every trip. Eventually you will get something, a follow, a hit, and eventually some fish.

This is where personal confidence comes into play. You paid $30 for the swimbait, threw it for a few hours every trip and finally you caught one. You just cleared a big hurdle, that first fish on a swimbait. This hurdle is usually the hardest and luckily it keeps getting smaller as the fish count rises right along with your confidence. Seeing other people catching fish on swimbaits can give you confidence, but there is nothing like holding a fish that you personally caught on a swimbait to give you a big confidence boost. Eventually throwing a 9 inch swimbait isn’t so daunting and you find yourself doing it more and more. Consequently the more and more you throw the swimbait the more fish you will catch. Granted you won’t be getting 10 fish per day on a swimbait like you would on a Senko or a plastic worm, but the fish will almost definitely be quality fish. I say almost because I have caught 1 and 2 pound fish on a 9 inch bait.

So what does this all mean? If you have been on the edge about trying out swimbaits, go to www.calfishing.com and read the trophy forum for lots of good information about swimbaits. Also www.trophybassonly.com has a great forum, along with hundreds of pictures of trophy bass many of them caught on swimbaits. So go online, get some confidence, buy some swimbaits, (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/swimbaits.html?from=calfish) and start chucking.

________________________________

Pretending to be a swimbait fisherman since 2001.

One of the things I look for is a good "ambush" spot. This time of year the fish will come in shallow at night to feed. I would work the bait close to the shore and around points with some good cover where a pig can hide, then when she sees a slow moving target come by...but definately you need to put your time in.I have my days where I throw a big bait all night and get nothing and sometimes I get 4 in one hour. Confidence and throw it over and over, try dead sticking it too sometimes it will produce better than swimming it. Just experiment different ways,sometimes they want it fast,sometimes slow or not moving at all.Keep trying because the reward is well worth it when you do get a good fish on it!

Spike: I'm in the boat with you. I've bought a few including a Slammer and am still 'Bassless'. We've both received good replys and I appreciate both the quetion and the replies. Thank's y'all.

Dan

"Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less"

Deo Vindice